Interview

Interview With Psychostick the creators of "Humorcore"

Band Photo: Psychostick (?)

What do you get when you take Tenacious D and add an element of System of a Down and even more metal? You get a whole new genre, "Humorcore," and a band named Psychostick. Despite being a comedy metal band, Psychostick is very much a band that is to be taken seriously despite unable to come up with a formal title for their first album. I had the pleasure of interviewing them at Chicago’s Reggie’s Rock Club on State Street.

Daniel Becker: Tell us your Philosophy on “humorcore.”

Alex Preiss: I think that for us it is very descriptive and making fun of all the other “cores” out there. You know there is: deathcore, mathcore, metalcore, so why not humorcore?

Becker: So do you think the whole genre of metal has been taken way too seriously?

Preiss: I think some people take it a bit too seriously. You know, we like to have fun with it.

Becker: How has the touring been so far? Any funny/big tour stories you would like to share with us?

Preiss: How about that story of stinky palm? It was at Fort Wayne right?

Psychostick: Oh Geez… (laughs)

Preiss: We were in Fort Wayne, and there was this girl, who I think was a stripper….

Josh Key: Or just trashed out of her mind…

Preiss: No, she was a stripper. She told me afterwards.

Rob Kersey: She was trying to sleep with any band member that she could. She was so drunk and obnoxious that nobody really wanted to. She was a total typical groupie chick. We were back at the venue trying to load our trailer, and she was getting in the way. We were trying to ignore her but then she just decided to stick her hand down the back of her pants. You can tell plain as day that she was playing with her asshole.

Preiss: Then she took her hand out of her pants and lunged forward at us. We were all telling her to get her hand away from us because that is incredibly lewd and disgusting.

Kersey: Then she sticks her hand out and I kind of back off; then she starts chasing me around the van with an outstretched hand. So I just hid in the bathroom.

Preiss: Then after you ran off, she tried to get Matt, our bassist, with her dirty fingers. As she chased Matt, he grabbed her arm that was in her butthole, and got the hand-sanitizer out of the van and squirted a whole bunch on her arm. Matt had thankfully diffused the problem. That is our big tour story of stinky palm.

Becker: Rob, you are known to come on stage and bust out a guitar from Guitar Hero. Are you known by your band as a Guitar Hero virtuoso? In other words, do you play guitar hero a lot and can you pass everything on expert more importantly?

Kersey: No, I’m terrible. I actually don’t play that game. I really don’t play it at all. Josh can actually play Guitar Hero very well and can play it on the expert level. Expert, I definitely cannot pass. On hard, I think I have more of a chance.

Becker: Before and after a show, what is a typical Psychostick Routine?

Kersey: Sleep. Eat food. Well, usually we eat a….

Becker: SANDWHICH!!!!!!!

Psychostick: (All laughs)

Kersey: Usually before we play, Josh and I will do some vocal warm-ups. We really do not do anything special per se before the concert. The typical routine is just warming up our voice and practicing. I mean, we will blow up hookertits (everyone laughs)

Becker: You have produced two full-length albums and one EP in the span of six years. Have you been doing other projects during that time? If so, what are they?

Key: Well, we have some pretty big plans for our songs in general. We are going to start releasing more music. We have decided unanimously on that. A lot of bands at our level, or even above, get big by releasing a lot of content. We have so many song ideas, and an endless library of riffs, so we are definitely going to release more music on a regular basis.

Becker: When you mean regular, do you mean that you are going to come out with a new album every two years and tour on the year that you don’t record?

Key: Yeah, something like that. Our goal is to come out with an album every year -1.5 years. That is our goal.

Becker: What type of metal do you listen to? Like, what has been some of the music you are inspired by when you record? What comedy have you also been inspired by when recording?

Preiss: Metal in general. It is the high-pitched winey vocals that I tend to stay away from.

Becker: So I take it you are not the biggest power metal fan then?

Preiss: No. We like Machine Head a lot. They’re a band I (we) really enjoy.

Key: We listen to everything from Meshuggah, to Every time I Die and Dillinger Escape Plan.

Becker: Any chance there will be another EP holiday album? Maybe the title can be the “Flesh Eating Menorah,” or something….

Kersey: We have not gotten that far on album concepts yet. We are probably going to create another Christmas song, or another Christmas themed album in the future. I don’t know though.

Key: We just kind of do whatever we feel like doing.

Becker: Well, I was supposed to have asked ten questions, but I could not think of a tenth question. You know how that goes right? You could not think of an album title so I hope you can sympathize with me….

Psychostick: (all laughs)

Becker: So what bands do you want to give props to?

Key: I’m kind of digging Animals as Leaders right now. They’re the instrumental band. They have some of the best musicianship I have ever listened to before. It is all instrumental, and it totally blew my mind.

Becker: Thanks for your time! Can you please sign all 3 of your CD’s for me?

Psychostick: Sure thing man!

Deathcrush (Daniel Becker) has been an advocate of metal since 2000, when he discovered gateway bands such as Disturbed and Slipknot. As a metal fan, he is a guitar "muggle" but can play metal songs on the Piano.